2020-4-1 How do you move the iTunes library to a new Mac so that it is the main machine for my iPod/iPhone? This is slightly off the primary topic, but it’s worth mentioning. The iTunes music directory stores all of your iPhone, iPod, and iPad ownership data as well, thus, moving this directory also moves ownership in that sense.
- How To Move Itunes Library From Mac To Windows 10
- How To Move Itunes Library From Windows Pc To Mac
- Move Itunes Library From Mac To Windows 10
By Stephen Robles
Tuesday, February 03, 2015, 09:17 am PT (12:17 pm ET)
All the music, podcasts, movies and TV shows you've downloaded to iTunes are most likely taking up a good amount of hard drive space and can easily be moved.
Before starting the process, we suggest making an up to date Time Machine backup of your computer to an external hard drive or Time Capsule. Be sure the external hard drive you use to perform this backup is different than where you will move the iTunes Library should anything happen.
To begin moving your library, open iTunes, click File in the Menu Bar and select Library > Organize Library
Check the box that says Consolidate files and click OK. This will make sure all the music, movies and other files are actually located in the iTunes Media folder that will be moving to your external drive.
If you moved your iTunes Media folder in the past, it is best to double check the folder iTunes is actually accessing for your library files. To do this, go to iTunes in the Menu Bar > Preferences and click the Advanced tab.
Under the iTunes Media folder location you will see a path to the files you are about to move. By default, this should be located in the Music folder of your Home directory.
Quit iTunes by going to iTunes in the Menu Bar > Quit iTunes or press Cmd + Q. Connect the external hard drive that you will use to copy the iTunes library. You should see it appear on your desktop.
Open a new Finder window and click Music in the left sidebar. Click and drag the iTunes folder onto the external hard drive icon on your Desktop.
How To Move Itunes Library From Mac To Windows 10
Depending on how large your library is and the connection speed of the external drive, it may take several minutes or longer to complete the copy process.Once the copy is completed, hold the Option key on your keyboard and open iTunes from the Dock or Applications folder again. A new window will pop up asking you to Create Library or Choose Library. Click on Choose Library.
In the browser window that appears, navigate to your external hard drive, click the iTunes folder there and choose the iTunes Library file.
iTunes will then open and as long as the external hard drive is connected, iTunes will reference the library on the external drive and not on your computer's drive.
Quit iTunes once again and eject the external hard drive holding your new iTunes Library. Open a new Finder window and navigate to the Music folder in the left sidebar again.
Right click or Ctrl+click on the iTunes folder and move it to the Trash.Finally, to free up the space on your internal hard drive, open the Trash from the Dock or Finder window and click Empty Trash in the upper right corner.
How To Move Itunes Library From Windows Pc To Mac
Your iTunes Library has officially been removed from the internal drive. You can now reconnect the external hard drive you used to copy the iTunes Library, open iTunes and use it as normal.
If you open iTunes without your external hard drive connected, iTunes will give you an error message saying the 'Library cannot be found.' Quit iTunes, connect the external hard drive and reopen iTunes to fix.
You may want to copy your iTunes folder onto a second external hard drive as a backup as well. iTunes Match for $25 per year will also backup all your music to Apple's cloud service.
Where to buy an external drive at discount
Choosing a high-quality Mac-formatted external hard drive instead of an Apple-branded Time Capsule will often save you hundreds of dollars. Of all the Apple Authorized Resellers who deal heavily in storage devices, B&H Photo, Adorama, and Amazon offer the best mix of brand options, discounted pricing, availability, and cost-free shipping. Below are some quick links that jump to the available Mac-formatted storage options currently available from these resellers:
1TB to 6TB External Hard Drives (Mac Formatted) from $95.99 @ B&H
1TB to 6TB External Hard Drives (Mac Formatted) from $119.00 @ Adorama
750GB to 6TB External Hard Drives (Mac Formatted) from $65.00 @ Amazon
500GB to 6TB Portable Hard Drives (Mac Formatted) from $99.00 @ B&H
500GB to 6TB Portable Hard Drives (Mac Formatted) from $56.99 @Adorama
500GB to 6TB Portable Hard Drives (Mac Formatted) from $58.00 @ Amazon
Jul 16,2019 • Filed to: iTunes Music Transfer • Proven solutions
Is it possible to transfer my iTunes library from pc to mac and/or mac to pc?
The brand new expensive computer will not provide you the level of joy that you are expecting from it without the lovely melodic tunes stored in your iTunes library. So you need a reliable and quick way to transfer all your favorite tunes to your new hard drive and start having all the fun. Therefore, the need for transferring iTunes library from your personal computer to Mac computer is inevitable. To transfer the entire iTunes Library from PC to Mac does not need you to be a system engineer. There are however multiple ways to accomplish this task and transfer your files easily from one computer to other. Let us explore some nice ways to use the iTunes backup and restore the wide variety of data to our local machines.
Part 1. Without External Hard Drive – Using iMusic (Highly Recommend) to Move iTunes Library from PC to Mac
Before you start your transfer process, reliable network connectivity between the two computers is needed i.e. between your PC and Mac. The iTunes software must be installed on both computers also. Your Apple id must also be linked to iTunes library in order to proceed successfully. In this first method of transferring iTunes library from PC to Mac machine, we will not make use of any external storage devices or hard drives. Instead, we will make use of the gadgets like iPod, iPad or iPhone. We need to choose a robust tool like iMusic to transfer the iTunes library from Personal pc computer to Mac.
iMusic is a powerful all-in-one multimedia management tool that has built-in features for transferring media files and fixing iTunes-related issues. One particular feature that stands out in this regard is the Rebuild iTunes Library feature that can be used to transfer the entire iTunes library from a Windows PC to a Mac in no time!
iMusic - Transfer iTunes from PC to Mac without Erasing the Data
- Move iTunes library from PC to Mac /Mac to PC Easily.
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- Download Music from 3000+ Sites. Download music from YouTube, Dailymotion, Spotify, etc 3000 music sites for free.
- Record Music from Radio Stations. Record any song that you can play on your PC/Mac with ID3 tags attached.
Due to the fact that iMusic is compatible with both Microsoft Windows technology as well as Mac operating system, you will find it enjoyable not to run into OS compatibility issues. Follow the steps below to enjoy a convenient experience of transferring your iTunes library from PC to Mac:
Step 1: Download and install iMusic. Connect your device with your computer and click on the “Library” , “Add” button on the top bar. Select the files from PC to iTunes Library.
Step 2: Disconnect your device from one computer and connect it with the other computer. Once you have connected the device, click on the “Toolbox”. Hit the “Rebuilt iTunes Library” on this new computer and select your device from the screen. Click on the “Start” button.
Step 3: Now, select the corresponding tab which is present at the top and click on the “Export to Mac”. This is the last step which may take some time depending upon the music present on your computer. Once the process is completed, you will see the pop-up on the screen showing the successful transfer. Which means that you have finished the process transferring itunes from PC to Mac.
Using the “Rebuild iTunes” feature is easy but you need to be cautious also locate folders yourself. This may take a lot of time to complete depending upon your computer speed and data files, but in the end, it leaves you happy and satisfied.
Related article reading: transfer itunes playlist to new computer.
Part 2. Transfer iTunes from PC to Mac With External Hard Drive With External Hard Drive
Keeping your iTunes files in one location makes your job easier for using this method. Then you can arrange a hard drive to copy all your files to it and enjoy transferring the data to a new location on the new machine. The best way is to you External Hard Drive or the USB depending upon the music library present on your computer. Before you continue, remember that this method will not work the Apple music and you can only transfer the tracks which are already present on your computer or you have purchased from the iTunes Library.
- On your Mac computer, click open preferences and click iTunes. Then select advance and keep track of your music folder on your local PC.
- Now select Organize Library and click on the Consolidate option. Now all your media and music files will be copied to your computer in the iTunes folder. The larger the size of your files, the longer it will take to complete. As soon as the process of Consolidation ends, you can quit iTunes.
- The next step is to plug in the hard drive externally which has large free space available to hold all your desired data. Check the folder size and find out how much the size of your data in the folder properties is.
- If your external hard drive is no formatted, format it before proceeding forward. The Apple iPod or iPhone can also be used as an external hard drive depending on how much space they have.
- Once the external drive is formatted and connected, you can drop and drag the iTunes folder and start the process of copying the media files to external drive. Click Eject Hard Drive once the copying process is over.
- Now move on to your Mac computer and locate your iTunes media folder on the new system. Connect the external drive to this machine and you are ready to transfer the iTunes library to your Mac now. If you do not want the existing music on your mew machine to be deleted, then copy those files and save them on the external disk.
- Now all you have to do is to replace the currently existing media folder with the new one. All the playlists, ratings and songs information will be reloaded by the iTunes automatically once it is done.
Part 3. Transfer iTunes from PC to Mac With Home Sharing Method
The Home Sharing Method is relatively an easy method to transfer the iTunes library from PC to Mac. The necessary condition to complete this method is to install the iTunes on the both computers first. Moreover, you will also need to use the same iTunes account on the both computer. Let’s see the step by step procedure to use the Home Sharing Method.
- As soon as the Mac and old computer are connected to the same network using the Wi-Fi, open iTunes on them one by one.
- Then on the first computer (with Windows), select the Home Sharing icon which will be seen on the left menu. Sometimes this icon does not appear due to Home Sharing being turned off, in this case, turn on the home sharing first.
- After the Home sharing is enabled on both of your computers, you can see the Home sharing icon and click it. The Home Share Button can be created here by entering your known Apple password and id.
- Now you need to assign permissions to your computer on which you are copying your iTunes library to. Click Authorize Computer on the Store Menu and again enter your Apple id and password.
- In the left menu, click the Home Sharing icon now. Select all the files and music that you want to copy or select all if you need everything to the new machine.
- Now the final step is to hit the Import button. Once done, the files will start copying onto your new computer without a delay. If network speed is good with a Wi-Fi connection, then the process will take only a few minutes. The transfer speed also depends on the size of your iTunes library items. That completes our third method to transfer the iTunes library from PC to Mac successfully.
Conclusion:All methods have their own pros and cons, if you don’t want to use the same iTunes account on both computers, the best way is to transfer the iTunes library from PC to Mac using iMusic. Moreover, it will also save you a lot of time as you will not need to transfer the data from one computer to hard drive and then to the other computer. In this way, you can also preserve the library on your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. Which is your favorite method? Let us know in the comments section below.
iMusic - Move iTunes Library from PC to Mac with Simple Clicks
Move Itunes Library From Mac To Windows 10
- Copy iTunes Library from PC to Mac Easily.
- 1-click to backup iPad music to iTunes Library/Mac.
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- Download music from over 3000 music sites, including download YouTube to MP3.
- Record music from any radio stations with music tag, covers, album name attached.
- Built-in library collected thousands of songs for free download.